Top 9 Best Investing Apps to Help Grow Your Wealth Today

The great secret that many wealthy people will happily reveal is that anyone can invest; namely, you don’t have to be super rich or successful to start investing — hence why, today, we’ll be telling you all about the best investing apps.  These apps can help you buy stock, trade them, and generally improve your financial standing with a few taps of your finger on your smartphone. We’ve reviewed each one of these apps so that you can decide which one suits your needs best.

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Overview — This is our top choice when it comes to the best investment apps available today. Blooom is an ideal pick for people looking to invest in their future by saving for retirement. In short, this smart advisor helps you manage your 401(k), IRA, and other retirement-specific accounts. It’s an excellent way of ensuring that you are financially secure in your golden years. 

Benefits — Blooom’s expertise lies with workplace retirement plans, but your employer need not sign up or partner with them. The best part? There is a $0 account minimum; meaning, you can start with just about any amount. You also pay a flat fee, depending on what you want to get out of the app. 

Key features — As one of the best investing apps for planning for your future financial health, Blooom does offer advice on your investments to help guide you. Namely, the app will analyze your 401(k) plan free of charge when you sign up for an account. 

Fees and packages — There are three packages on offer: the Essentials, the Standard, and the Unlimited package and each costs a bit more than the previous one with the Unlimited being the premium of the three. 

Pros:

• No account minimum 
• Helps with managing 401(k)
• Don’t have to be a hands-on investor

Cons:

• Their risk tolerance assessment is not extensive enough

Overview — Personal Capital is one of the best apps for investing if you prefer being a hands-off investor. In other words, you provide Personal Capital with funds and they ensure that your wealth grows steadily. In addition, you have access to at least one dedicated financial advisor. 

Plus, if your account has a minimum of at least $200,000, then you get two dedicated financial advisors. Likewise, you can check in on your investments as often as you’d like. But, you don’t have to be an active investor if you don’t want to. 

Benefits — Although the fee might be on the steeper side, you’ll have access to tons of resources; for instance, expert financial tools that will help with planning and investing. You can also keep an eye on your net worth, how much you’re spending, how your portfolio is performing from one day to the next, including the progress of your retirement funds. 

Key features — Personal Capital is one of the best investing apps for people who know how to handle their finances thanks to its exceptional built-in investment intelligence. Namely, experienced users will have a much easier time perfecting their wealth management skills with this expertly-crafted app.

In addition, there is an account minimum of $100,000, making this app ideal for people who want to make larger investments. 

Fees and packages — Depending on your assets, there are three tiers available. The first tier starts at $100,000 in assets; the second — $200,000; the third — $1 million. 

Pros:

• Access to financial advisors
• The more you invest, the lower your percentage fee
• Expert financial tool for investing

Cons:

• High account minimum

Overview — Merrill Edge has our vote for the best stock trading app for beginners and can help you grow your wealth from the moment you start. Moreover, the mobile app has some amazing features and functions just like a desk-top trading platform — in other words, it’s incredibly intuitive, even for people who are completely new to trading. 

If you’d prefer, you can choose between their website and Merrill Edge MarketPro — their other platform. 

Benefits — One thing that separates Merrill Edge from the competition is that extensive third-party research is also available. As a result, making decisions on exactly how and when to invest and trade is a lot simpler. 

To our delight, you can trade the following securities with this brand: bonds, stocks, EFTs, options, and mutual funds. Additionally, you won’t have to pay a cent per trade, which saves you money and gives you plenty of freedom to trade as you wish without hesitation. 

Lastly, this is the best investment app for existing customers of Bank of America — Merrill Edge is fully integrated with this financial institution. Namely, as a customer of Bank of America, you can get in-person customer service concerning your investments at more than 4,000 locations. 

Key features — If you want to check out a mutual fund’s holding, you can do so via their easy-to-use “Fund Story” feature. This neat little feature provides you with detailed information on the fund’s investments, performance, ratings, and more. And when it comes to checking on your own investments, you can use the “Portfolio Story” and “Stock Story” features, as well. 

Pros:

• Free trades (unlimited)
• Extensive third-party research available
• Excellent for Bank of America users

Cons:

• Not the best option for advanced traders

Overview — Round is the best app for investing when it comes to active portfolio management. Unlike many other robo-investing competitors, Round aims to better the market by adjusting portfolios consistently and regularly. Better yet, you can update your own portfolio if you want to change it at any point. To do that, you just need to contact Round and make a request. 

Benefits — The main benefit of this investing app is that it doesn’t make use of passive investment. Instead, it analyzes portfolios and makes the necessary adjustments to try and better the market at any given time. As such, investment opportunities are a breeze with this app — something an amateur wouldn’t be able to choose on their own. 

Key features —  All you need to do with this app is answer a few questions, which shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes and it’s nothing like a detailed background check. Likewise, this relatively easy investing app will set you up with fund managers that are considered world-class. And after you’ve invested, they’ll keep an eye on your portfolio and actively tweak it. 

Consequently, you’ll be invested in more than simply bonds and stocks. 

Fees and packages — There is a 0.5% fee, which is charged monthly. That is, if you have a good month, you have to pay the fee. If not, you won’t have to pay anything. 

Pros:

• Fee waived for negative returns
• Portfolios are regularly adjusted

Cons:

• No app for Android users

Overview — TD Ameritrade is one of the best investment apps for beginners in 2020 due to there being no account minimum and the $0 charge per trade. Moreover, the brand offers four high-quality investment platforms that are easy to use and have exceptional customer service.

Benefits — TD Ameritrade offers in-depth data to help you make the best financial decisions, as well as expert guidance to grow your portfolio. Simply put, you have access to financial guidance over the phone, through text, over social platforms, and even in person at one of their 300 branches. 

As an investor, you will have the opportunity to learn and better your financial decisions with all the resources at your disposal. 

Key features — Part of the reason this is one of the best investment apps for beginners is the virtual trading simulator. This is an excellent way to practice investing through mock trading accounts. You’ll get $100,000 in “fake money” to explore the platform, have some fun, and make investments along the way. It’s the perfect way to see how things work before you start investing your hard-earned money. 

Of course, TD Ameritrade isn’t just for beginners. It also has a lot to offer in terms of research, data, guidance, and more. 

Pros:

• No account minimum 
• Exceptional customer support
• Wide range of investment opportunities

Cons:

• You cannot invest in fractional shares

Overview — In this Acorns investing app review, we want to highlight just how great this option is for people who have trouble saving. Namely, the app helps you both invest and save money at the same time. 

In short, your spare change is automatically invested without any hassle on your part. If you have a savings goal — for example, to pay for a wedding — then this is a great place to start. 

Benefits — Acorns offers plenty of educational material (mostly tips to help you grow your wealth) thanks to teaming up with CNBC. Yet, there’s a lot more that you can do with this app. For one, the app utilizes experts when creating portfolios so that your money is always invested smartly and these portfolios are regularly adjusted for the best results. 

Key features — This best online investment app comes with three unique tiers that help improve your financial standing; the available features will depend mostly on the tier you choose (more on that below). 

Fees and packages — The first tier is called Lite and will cost you $1 per month. It includes a service that automatically invests your spare change, bonus investments with one of their 350+ partners, and access to educational material. 

The second tier is called Personal and costs $3 per month. It has the same benefits as Lite and helps you save for retirement. You will also get tax advantages, bonus investments of up to 10%, and access to automated investments. 

The final tier in this cash app investing review is called Family and costs $5 per month. This tier has the same benefits as the other two with some additional perks for people with families. 

Pros:

• Three tiers to choose from 
• Spare change is automatically invested
• Retail partnerships

Cons:

• Investment portfolio is not large enough

Overview — If you are looking for the most advanced free investing apps, then you should look no further than E*Trade. The app offers thorough research, information, and data for investments and trades. Likewise, it’s perfect for both beginner investors and hardened veterans. 

Overall, E*Trade has a lot to offer. 

Benefits — For starters, you don’t have to pay for trades and there is no account minimum, making it great for people who are just starting out. In addition, there are numerous perks that benefit more advanced investors. 

Apart from that, there is an extensive range of investments to choose from and you can trade futures, stocks, options, EFTs, bonds, and mutual funds. 

Key Features — The platform itself is fairly simple and comes with some advanced features. This is also one of the best apps for investing in stocks simply due to the unique customer experience you’ll receive. For one, you can access real-time customer support over live chat, email, phone, and in-person at one of their 30 physical branches. 

Fees and Packages — There are two trading platforms available: E*Trade Web and Power E*Trade. Both are accessible by all E*Trade customers and you don’t have to have a minimum balance to use them. 

Pros:

• Wide range of investments
• Thorough research available
• Tools that are easy to use

Cons:

• The website isn’t as straightforward as the app itself

Overview — In our Stash investing app review, we find it’s super important to note that this app is one of the very best when it comes to guidance. Simply put, the app will do a great job of holding your hand throughout the entire investing process. Hence, if you’ve never invested before, this app is ideal for you. 

Benefits — The app offers plenty of resources and educational material to help jumpstart your investment portfolio.

Key Features — Depending on which plan you choose, you’ll get the following features:

• The ability to invest in fractional shares, a personal investing account, budgeting tools, a Stock-Back Card (gives you stock in the stores that you shop at), access to life insurance, and more with the Stash Beginner plan.
• You get all the features of Stash Beginner (including tax benefits upon investing in your retirement), an IRA, and expert retirement advice with the Stash Growth plan.
• The best stock investing app, Stash+, that this brand has to offer includes all the features of the previous two plans, as well as market reports and insight every month, two kids investing accounts, twice the amount of rewards, and more.

Fees and Packages — As previously mentioned, Stash has three distinct plans on offer:

• Stash Beginner — costs $1 per month.
• Stash Growth — costs $3 per month. 
• Stash+ — costs $9 per month.

Pros:

• Outstanding for beginners
• Stock-Back card
• Top-notch educational material

Cons:

• They don’t manage investments directly

Overview — If you’ve ever wondered what is the best investment app for learning without any real-world losses, then you should try out Invstr. It is essentially a game that you can use to invest “fake money” on the stock market. 

Overall, it’s a neat way to learn the basics without facing any actual losses. If you’re just starting out, this app is the perfect practice before you actually get to invest your hard-earned cash. 

Benefits — With this app, you get to team up with friends and play in a private league. You can see how your friends are doing and they can see your progress, too. This allows you to learn from your friends and your own successes and failures; there’s even a chat function where you can hype each other up. 

In essence, it’s like fantasy football, but for financial growth. 

Key Features — This is one of the best apps to start investing without having to stress out due to a possible financial loss. The truly great thing about this app is that you have access to all the info you need to turn your account into a “winner.” Namely, the app offers in-depth market insights, real-time data, analysis, and charts. Hence, you can make informed decisions to move your game forward. 

And for those who want to start investing with real money, Invstr now allows real-money trading. If you don’t want to do that, you can still win real prizes for making good investments. 

Pros:

• Invest up to $1 million in “pretend money”
• Win real prizes

Cons:

• Not for advanced investors

There are many options to choose from when it comes to investing apps in the US — hence why doing your homework is so important. Luckily for you, we provided you with all the information you need to make an informed decision. 

Read on to learn what to look out for when picking an investing app. 

Fees

Before you decide on a trading platform, it’s important to know all the fees involved. Some apps charge a flat fee every month, others charge a percentage annually, and a few of them even charge per trade; the best stock investment apps will be upfront about any fees. 

Also, if you use an app that charges a flat fee, you need to make sure that you are making enough on your investments to justify that fee. If you are charged a percentage, check whether that percentage is lowered the more you invest. You don’t want to be paying the same percentage on $200,000 as you would for $100,000. 

Account Minimum

If you are an advanced investor, having a required account minimum of $100,000 likely won’t be a huge deal. However, if this is the beginning of your financial journey, you may not have that much to start with. Luckily, there are several best online investment apps out there that have a $0 account minimum. 

User Experience

Is the app easy to navigate? What is the interface like? Overall, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t struggle to trade and invest with the app in question. 

The ability to use the app without much hassle is important because when you struggle to make investments, it makes the whole process more difficult. 

Research and Data

Educational and informative material is important. You want to make sure that the app you’re using helps guide you along the way as well. Check what they offer in terms of insight, research, and data. You want to have all the information you need to make the right financial decision with a few taps of your finger. 

Customer Support

Always look out for investing apps reviews that show what the customer support is like. Exceptional customer support can make all the difference in your investment journey. You should also check what means of contact the app uses — whether you’ll be able to phone, email, live chat, or speak in person with a financial advisor. 

Investing is without a doubt the best way to grow your wealth and using an investing app is an efficient way to invest; just like using a proper credit card for your score. And our reviews are a great place to start. 

All in all, make sure to look at fees, the account minimum, user experience, availability of research and data, and customer support when deciding which app to use.